AMC Chestnut Hill 5
27 Boylston Street,
Chestnut Hill,
MA
02167
27 Boylston Street,
Chestnut Hill,
MA
02167
8 people
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This may the theater when it was run by GCC:
http://tinyurl.com/2e8g94b
http://tinyurl.com/dhymhc
Renewing link.
Re: angling the seats with the split, the stadium style, with each row of seats backed up to the riser of the step behind, might have been the problem. We can agree on Joe Saunders though.
The AMC Chestnut Hill Cinema doesn’t really stand a chance of becoming an arthouse, although it would be nice.
dwodeyla: When they the auditoriums they never re-arced the seats, do you know why, aside from the fact that Joe Saunders was a tightwad? Did they think nobody would notice? Everyone from Boston to Los Angeles noticed.
The most prominent time was at your cinema for an interview, when I was trying to leave Hoyts and you had an open manager position (probably 96). We also met once or twice at TONE meetings.
I’m still reading about the theatres, but not affiliated with the Chestnut Hill Cinema anymore. I managed it from 1986 until 1999. Refresh my memory, where did we meet?
dwodeyla,
Are you still affiliated with this site? Curious as we have met several times in the mid 90’s. I was with Hoyts Cinemas at the time until shortly before their bankruptcy, when I went to National Amusements.
It’s from 1985, just prior to the new design by Cambridge 7.
There’s no way this photo is from the 1970s- the Diet Pepsi logo on the fountain drink machines is definitely from the 1980s.
I would like to point out what has not yet been mentioned. The long-time Manager, who I have never met, was one of the most effective Managers in the company. The plush nature of Chestnut Hill was not simply rooted in its location, or the presence of the Home Office. Much of it had to do with this Manager’s various creative and effective ways of generating increasing income. One of the most famous of these was that he held numerous national VIP accounts. For those who might not remember, these were the discounted tickets sold in bulk as a benefit to employees of various corporations and universities. It was the Managers themselves that would convince Personnel Directors to buy them.
Amen!
They give them more time now, so that they can get upstairs to the booth to lace up the next show. Back in “the good old days”, we had projectionists.
Ah, what a trip down memory lane. I was assistant manager at Chestnut Hill for around six months in the mid-eightys before moving onto Framingham and eventually becoming manager of Peabody and Burlington Mall. It seems like an entirely different pace these days when I go to the Lowes Theatre on the Boston Common or the AMC Fenway 13. When Mr. Wodeyla and I were managers we were expected to have the 1:00, 3:15, 5:20, 7:30 and 9:30 (maybe 9:45) schedule which left you about 5 minutes to clean the theatre and then get the crowd in to find seats. Now it seems like there is a bit more time to prep the house the way it should be.
It has a pumping system which is removing underground oil which was found to have been leaking from the Harcourt Office heating oil tank. Evidently, there’s a danger that the oil, which leaked into the ground, would find it’s way to the Hammond Pond at the end the parking lot. So corporate was required to pay for the cleanup. This all began around 1998.
In the parking lot on the lobby-side of the theatre, what is that little wooden shack sitting there in front of the lobby?
I’m told that the Century JJ in cinema 1 came from the “old” Framingham cinema and was removed from there when it closed (before the current Framingham 16 was built). It’s one of the first JJs made, which would date it to the early 1960s. It replaced a Norelco AA-II at some point in the 1990s (I don’t know why).
Some of that equipment looks as though it was dragged out of the warehouse (GCC had an old bowling alley where they stored old booth, concession, lobby and office equipment from theatres that had been closed down) – old Century pedastal and heads, with Xetron lamphouse and stand-alone rectifier pre-dates the theatre.
Interesting photos. The caption under the first photo is incorrect, though. The Chestnut Hill cinema opened in 1975, not 1979.
Some photos of the Chestnut Hill Cinema, mostly inside the projection booths.
I actually am going to have to disagree with Bigred here about AMC. In Northern NJ they actually lowered prices! At GC Clifton Commons they held the same adult price as GC did (for a year and a half after they merged) and lowered prices by 8.50 (from 9.00) at GC Essex Green. They also started to offer student rate. Their prices are cheaper than Regal, Loews, and National Amusements.
The formica wall behind the stand was red white and blue. I started managing that theatre in 1986, at the point where the concession area was being demolished for the new design by Cambridge 7. The original ottomans were red velour. The new design was a medium grey for the brick lobby areas, concession running straight across with lit back bar graphics, and the dark blue carpet replacing red. (The original solid red was long gone by ‘86) Replacing the ottomans, were light oak benches, and the original white metal seats were replaced with gray plastic backs with blue fabric. (the auditorium floors were painted grey to match. They had been red)
As for the date in the photo on the web page, it may be an error. The two films mentioned by ErikH are the correct opening week films.
Yup, that’s the Chestnut Hill’s lobby – as I recall from when I was there, the carpet was solid red, not the red-patterned carpet that they had in all the other theatres, the back wall of the lobby was white brick, the front and sides were dark tinted glass. The wall design behind the concession stand was black, red and silver, I think. I don’t recall what color the ottomans were. The stand was at the mid-point of the lobby, and the auditorium entrances (2) were at the far ends of the lobby and the two boxoffice counters were also at the far ends of the bobby near the windows. The restrooms were inside the auditorium doors on each theatre, built under the stadium.
The date of the lobby photo (August 1975) surprises me. I thought the Chestnut Hill complex opened in December of that year. If memory serves, the initial attractions were “The Man Who Would Be King” and an exclusive run of “Lucky Lady” —– both Christmas releases.
This page has a large August 1975 photo of the Chestnut Hill Cinema’s lobby.